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Saturday, November 10, 2007

Online blogger coffee, part 4

At our real blogger coffee, I was curious if people have set goals for their blogs, beyond the reason they started blogging in the first place.

Have you thought about starting a meme or carnival, like Karla's Gobble Gobble, or do you make it a point to participate in well-established sites? Do you have a strategy for increasing readership? Or does any of that matter to you at all?

*I have talked myself out of the blogging-about-blogging site. I don't have a very good track record with side blogs, and this is a season I should devote to my family. Right?

16 comments:

Truly I started blogging for myself as a way to stay positive about teaching in the inner city. When I started getting a few comments, well the bug bit. I was hooked! I like to do some carinvals, but I don't think I would start one. I don't spend too much time getting new readers. Mostly it is a way for my family to hear about my life and for me to celebrate/record the good things going on in one public classroom.I do however get very excited when new people do comment and I discover new (to me) blogs.

I started blogging when my blog was part of the Donna Young website. I really enjoyed the wisdom of those more experienced home school mom's as they started to share on my daily adventures.

Really, part of my motivation now is to put my thoughts down. I am not able to talk with my husband often, due to his work choices. So for me, blogging is my way of kind of... getting adult conversation and just putting down my mind on things.

That way when I am around my husband, for the most part, I am able to be the wife I need to be.

This explanation given, you can see why my blog is really... all over the place. No theme, no rhyme, no apparent reason!

I keep my real blog on wordpress. When Donna closed off sections of her website, I needed a new home. I had grown friendships that I simply don't want to loose!

I would love to increase my readership. I haven't been really going for that long yet, so I don't know if I have any real specific theories I'm trying... just to blog regularly. I try for at least one post a day. I would love to follow these posts over to whereever you take them (let me know). I am all about learning the art of blogging these days.

I love the idea of being an encouragement or inspiration to someone else (hopefully some of my posts are at least one of those). Down the road (should the Lord bless me with a readership) I wouldn't mind adding ads to my site and seeing if the Lord may use my blog as a way to help stretch or budget (or add to our "buy a home" savings account, or one of our other dreams). :)

I am always trying to get new readers but haven't decided on the best way to do it. I participate in others' carnivals but probaby wouldn't start my own--unless I had a great idea...I did a giveaway but that didn't seem like the most effective way to get readers. I could tell that they just entered the contest and quickly left. I enjoy learning about this topic and you've got tons of readers so I respect your advice. Thanks for doing these on-line get togethers. It is fun!

I haven't done a meme. I have done a few of Shannon's Works-for-Me Wednesdays, but I honestly don't think that does anything for readership. People come to read the tip, then they never come back. I do the same to their sites, so it's feeling pretty useless.

Most of my readers (if they're not personal friends and family) have come to be because they were intrigued by comments I made on someone's site, or they were interested in my name and blog title. I have a few Star Wars fans who are now regulars on my site because of that and the fact that I do post some of my husband's stormtrooper activities. I guess the Star Wars thing is as niche-y as I get, but that's really not what my blog is about.

I'm kind of on the fence about my feelings on readership. My ego would love to have more readers, but I'm mature enough to realize that the numbers don't really matter.

I started blogging simply for the love of writing and talking about the things I enjoy.

I don't have much traffic to my site yet. As "ewokgirl" said, I'd love to have more readers because I love to encourage others and hope that I could make a difference in someone else's life, but at the same time, I'm just enjoying keeping my friends and family up to date on our lives.

I started writing online way back when on "My Dear Diary". It was just a way for me to write (which I love to do) and kill time at work (thats bad, I knowIknow.). I was really surprised when people started responding to my writings. I also wrote alot on a message board and kinda had a readership there. Ended up becoming part owner of the site that hosted the board for awhile.

Started actually blogging as a way to keep in touch and share photos with out of town family members.

I do have a goal on my public family blog to try and blog every day,even just mundane daily things and then have the blog made into a book as a keepsake for my family.

This anonymous blog I started is more of a place for me to write out some issue I'm having in my own life and maybe encourage others along the way.

I love to get new readers, but I am not motivated enough to participate in memes. I push myself to participate in carnivals/festivals because we do get a boost in traffic from it, but I can't picture myself taking on establishing something myself.

Our Freebie Fridays & my notebook entries seem to be a big hit though so I will probably stick with doing those.

Today was a beautiful day to be outside. My husband and I joined some other friends helping a widow woman clean her house with a pressure washer so that some painters could paint next week. (this saved her several hundred dollars) So we are tired tonight. Hope you are feeling better. Roxie

I would love a big readership but I am content to have the Grandma's who live far away from us just be able to keep up with the kids and what I'm doing. I do participate in an occasional Frugal Friday, and do Wordless Wednesday and Show and Tell Fridays quite frequently.

I blog to keep track of my thoughts.We changed from being high paced city people to living on a small farm in Kansas. The blog helps to focus on why we did it.The blog is a reflection on simplicity of retirement in an area that we thought was the best one we had encountered in our 20 years as an Army family. Our kids are raised and now the rest of the story!

I started my blog for family members that live far away to keep up with. When I did that, I invited people that I haven't seen in awhile to read my blog. Sometimes I think they stop by. One dose at least. And I visit her too. :) I homeschool using five in a row, and I have been blogging about each book we have done, and I got a reader who is intrested in education to to favorite my site. I also got another one to favorite my site. I didn't mean to do this. So this has inspired me to keep going. I do participate in the memes. One of my favorites are Show and Tell Friday's. I truly do enjoy reading about everyone's treasures. I sometimes do Frugal Fridays if I have anything frugal to share about. I sometimes do Tackle it Tuesdays. This is a good motivator on my part to do projects that I am procrastinating on. And I always do Wordless Wednesdays, just because I love to show off cute pictures of my kids. :) My traffic this week increased signifigantly. Last week I gave away an item on the Fall Ya'll Bloggy give away. I had almost 1,000 hits. I normally get 160 a week. The week after the give away I had 300 hits. So I doubled my hits; at least this week.;) We shall see next week.

I started my blog so that I could be part of the international adoption community online. Now that I, and most of my blog friends, are home with babies, I keep it going to keep in touch with that community, other mommies, and real life friends and family. Like anyone else, I enjoy seeing new readers and bigger numbers but I don't do anything to actively cultivate more readers. It is mostly for my own entertainment and sanity.